Final Salute, the Book

In 2005, reporter James Sheeler published an article in the Rocky Mountain News called 'Final Salute' about the transport of a soldier's remains back from Iraq to his home for his funeral.

I'm often critical of casualty-focused reporting, because I see in those stories a reporter's effort to make a political statement by standing on the bodies of the wounded or dead. But when I read this story, I was so moved by the pure humanity it expressed, and the scrupulous and very real effort the reporter made to show us what he was seeing, rather than the point he wanted to make, that I wrote Sheeler and complimented him - kind of effusively.

Well, he just wrote back, and the article has been extended to a book - also called 'Final Salute,' which came out yesterday. As safe as Biggest Guy is today, it'll still be a hard read for me, but I'll read it regardless.

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